Photo-A-Day #484 08/05/06

This morning Allison and I got up very early and headed to Sea Glass Beach. Sea Glass Beach is where you can find lots of sea glass because this is where the fort would dump trash. There was a grind house that took the trash and ground it up and shot it out through a pipe into the ocean. Environmentally not friendly but now things like glass bottles, ceramic plates and pottery pieces that have been tumbled by the surf against the rocks for many years washes up on Sea Glass Beach to adorn the homes of the islanders.

We also walked over to the moon garden. I wanted to get out and take as many pictures of the island as I could. There were some really interesting rock formations on the shores. After our walk we headed back to the house, took showers and had some homemade blueberry muffins for breakfast. Great big blueberries, fresh from Maine.

We took the ferry into Portland and on the way back stopped at Long Island and the Great Diamond Island stop, there are two stops on Great Diamond Island (Great Diamond, village side and Diamond Cove, fort side). Kids will jump off the docks as the ferry pulls away so that the wake propels them. I got a few shots of some jumpers in mid air. Apparently the wake can propel someone about 70 feet or so. Long Island seceded from the city of Portland and is almost entirely inhabited by the local fishermen. It is a very close-knit community. When someone dies the whole island attends the funeral and when a baby is born it is outfitted for the first 5 years of life.

When the ferry docked we walked over to a bazaar that was going on. It was sponsoered by an organization called Cultural Survival. They sell items made by indigenous peoples to help them improve their quality of life and promote the cultures. I bought a pirate thimble from a Russian vendor. It now sits on my Guinness souvenir.

We went over to the mainland so that we could have lunch with Elise’s grandmother, Rosie, and her Aunt Mary. Rosie is in an assisted living facility and we went to visit her and have lunch there. It was a beautiful place and they had a very nice meal that included bread, salad, meal and dessert.

After lunch we walked around Old Port and poked around the shops. Didn’t buy anything, but we would be back the next day to pick up something we missed.

We caught the ferry back to the island and took a swim in the pool. Then we had a nice cookout and headed down to the Bob Marley Show. George Ham opened for Bob and he was the better of the two comedians. It wasn’t so much about the content for me as it was about mic control. Bob was practically swallowing the mic and that made for a very un-enjoyable show. Way too loud. No reason to be that loud at all. The show was to benefit the fire station on the island. On the island if the fire bell rings all people on the island become part of the fire department. It is a volunteer fire department and they have one truck. The show was fun and it was nice to have something to do in the evening and we were happy to finally see Bob Marley even though my eardrums were bleeding when it was over.